Anyone who writes crime fiction with police detectives...

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

How do you do your research on how the police work and what would and wouldn't happen? Is it just from reading other novels, or do you have a tame police person to ask? Or is there a book with the basics in? Or is it just extensive Googling?

I've got an idea for a detective novel that I want to write, but technical stuff about police procedure is holding me back.

thank you

[DisorderlyNights]

I'm only witting kids fiction, but wanted the procedurals to be right. (parents of the POV child go missing).
I needed help with social work procedure as well as police. I Googled a lot while writing my plan, then showed it to two social worker friends to check accuracy. One of them had a copper friend who then read it. I found out stuff that was very helpful for my plot - such as a missing person report can be made as soon as there is concern, you don't have to wait a certain amount of hours/days for it.

Once I'm happy with the draft I'm on, I'll get them to read the whole thing for minor issues, but yes, Google can be limited so ask around for friends of friends in the right jobs.

[scurryfunge]

You may find the Murder Manual useful if you google it.

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

That's very useful - thank you! Are you guys published?

[scurryfunge]

No, I'm old bill. You may get an insight from the Police Oracle forum too.

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

Cool - thank you! Scurry, do you ever read crime novels and spot inaccuracies? I know a SOCO person but no actual police

[scurryfunge]

Yes, I do occasionally. One thing that annoys a police officer is inaccurate procedures- though police officers are not likely to be your target audience so I wouldn't worry too much.

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

Yeah probably a bit of a busman's holiday for them, reading a police novel...

[scurryfunge]

I enjoy reading crime fiction but it's the basics that annoy me, like getting the caution wrong. True police procedures are incredibly dull for a reader so I understand why writers may take short cuts in explaining process to make it more exciting.

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

cool to have your opinion
I know what you mean - I'm a history geek but I love some massively inaccurate historical novels or films because I know telling the strict truth would be pretty dull

[DisorderlyNights]

I'm not published yet, so feel free to take my advice with a huge pinch of salt!

Good luck with your writing. Sounds very exciting, I love the planning stage.

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

Me too. I have a bit of a dark mind so it's nice to be able to do something where being cynical and dark is a positive advantage! I think I'm pretty mild compared to some writers who are very gory!

[DisorderlyNights]

See, my mind isn't dark enough. I struggled to get my villain sufficiently evil.

MS 1 is with an editor so I'm planning book 2 at the moment. After several months of editing, it's so fun being purely creative. Enjoy this part, agonising over whether your character just glanced, peered or stared comes all too quickly!

[BurlingtonBertieFromBow]

I have done a bit of first-drafting of this idea in a previous incarnation. I hate the first draft stage so much but quite like editing. I find you can make something look less shit quite quickly :)

[DisorderlyNights]

I enjoy the first edit; the rewrite, for the reason you say, it gets better fast. But I took it through six different edits (following advice being keep editing until you feel you can't do another... And then do one more!) and a lot of those were searching for boring or overused verbs and replacing them. It got very dull. But I hope I'll never need that many drafts again, I've learned so much through this process.

[DisorderlyNights]

Excuse my crappy typing, not a morning person!

[LadySybildeChocolate]

Hi I usually write children's fantasy books (haven't been published, yet) and have a plot for a children's detective novel. I've started to write it, but I've no idea what I'm doing really. I miss dragons!

[CoffeeInTheMorning]

A good place to check facts on any subject you're writing about (fiction) is the LiveJournal community "Little Details". Make sure you read their guidelines first (about doing some internet research yourself first and not just asking there first) but the community is very good at coming up with technical advice on things like police procedural (historical fiction on this too) and murder techniques etc